So if you're heading on over to the Show, do make sure you COME SAY HI :) we'd love to meet you!

The Stitches Shows are always such fun - we totally love doing them! Seriously, what's cooler than getting to hang out with a whole bunch of awesome crafty peeps all day long, for five days?

Ok there's one thing cooler - and that's doing a little 2hr class with us! We're gonna be running an intro to stencil printing & you should totally book in & do it! You get to design & then print your VERY OWN organic cotton/hemp tea towel! Just email us to make a booking :)

Quite a lot of you requested bamboo but our research has showed that while the bamboo plant itself is quite sustainable, the process that the plant fibres are put through to be turned in to a lovely soft fabric is definitely not, so we will not be using it.

The #2 request was for ready made tote bags! Ok, we're looking in to organising the equipment needed to print on to small sized things.. give us a bit of time with that one!

Your #3 request was for a lighter weight woven (*hi-five* to my fellow sewists out there, I've been wanting to do this one for a while!) to be used for dressmaking & quilting!

Congratulations, Sally!! You get to select your favourite 4 pieces from our new Tamarillo Collection.

Sally's suggestion was simply "upholstery weight!"Well good news for Sally, & all the other suggestions that we produce an upholstery weight - our Tamarillo Collection is available in two weights: a lighter weight 180gsm, and a lovely 360gsm upholstery weight! Hooray!

We may even have plans to develop our upholstery range further.. stay tuned..

Now, we were rather overwhelmed by the fabulous response from all of you so we decided to pick a couple of runners up as well!

Each runner up will receive a fabric bundle!

Congrats to Gloria (side note: hi-five for being a Scorpio!), Jenni & Fwdmotion!

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

To celebrate Earth Day, Jan of the wonderful label Daisy Janie asked us to take part in a blog hop giveaway! Hooray!!

(entries are now closed)

While giveaways are great and all, there is a serous message behind this one, and it's one I'm sure we've all heard before, but I'm going to say it anyway.

We simply cannot continue on the path of throw away consumerism.

In our little corner of the industry, we want to promote the use of organic fabrics. In particular, those that are sustainable & Global Organic Textiles Standard (GOTS) Certified.

The textile industry uses 25% of the worlds pesticides. 25%!! I can't even fathom how much poison that is, in litres.

The organic textile industry has very specific Standards regarding the use of toxins for something to be classed as organic, and has a hugely positive flow on to the (more often than not 3rd world) communities that grow & produce them. For example, the fields of organic cotton need to be rotated with other crops every few years, which also must be organic. This often means that the communities rotate the cotton with food crops, which means easy access to good quality, organic produce to be eaten and also sold. This, combined with the lack of toxic pesticides, means a hugely increase level of health for the people living around & working the cotton crops. It leads to better local economies, education & working conditions.

(The wonderful Kristen Doran had something to add! She says: I love the eco-friendly side of GOTS certified. But what I love even MORE about GOTS fabrics is the social criteria enforced. There is no forced or bonded labour in these companies. Child labour is not used and working conditions are clean. Working hours do not exceed 48 hours. I could go on... hurray for cotton manufacturers getting on board and looking after the workers. )

If we have to buy, then we must buy organic. It's the least we can do.

Please visit this site for more detailed & (much more) thoroughly researched information. No, no, I insist. Off you go.

We'll wait here...

...Ok, I know you didn't read it but let's continue, if you promise to read it tonight for homework.

On to the giveaway!

Together with the 11 other wonderful people/businesses below, we are giving away something lovely! So hop on over to everyone's blogs to enter their giveaways!! :)

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Wow, once again we're blown away to see such gorgeous things being made from our fabric. You might remember Erika's Sumor bedhead from a little while ago, well now she's done it again with a custom printed Birch in warm grey:

Birch bedhead by Erika Hellstrom-Allan

Birch bedhead by Erika Hellstrom-Allan

Looks amazing, I love it. If you're interested, Erika can be contacted at ehellstromallan[at]optusnet[dot]com[dot]au.

Monday, April 19, 2010

Hello! Just a quick note to say thanks to everyone who came along to our Open Studio on Saturday! It was one the best we've had so far with Little Harvest alongside us, a gorgeous shop display, yummy finger food and not one but two printing demonstrations!

And better yet, Emma from Little Harvest spent a chunk of time snapping away with her DSLR so we have some lovely pics to show you:

Teegs and Lara printing Chalk in Snow

The Ink & Spindle and Little Harvest shop - thanks to Lara D for making it look pretty :)

Lara printing (and not looking anywhere near as sick and cold-y as she felt)

Lara explains to the onlookers

Some keen observers (and yummy food thanks to the Harvest ladies)

And last but not least, Lara D, Emma and Jess from Little Harvest! Aren't they lovely!?

Thursday, April 15, 2010

Ooh-err it's been quite a good few weeks for press around here! Not only did our Harvest studio buddies make it into the Good Weekend the other week, but Lara was also interviewed for the Herald Sun Home magazine about her designs & collaboration with The Wall Sticker Company:

Lara's Herald Sun Home magazine article

Aaaaand on top of all that, 6 of our textiles are appearing as backgrounds in foodie photo shoots styled by Caroline Vekil who happened to be doing a shoot in our building one day. Here's one we managed to catch last week:

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

As you probably already know, we don't just print our own designs here at I&S HQ, but also those from a bunch of local designer geniuses!

And as for local, it doesn't get much more so than the expert fashion designer Melanie Bower!

Mel's studio resides in our much beloved (& rather rabbit warren-esque) Younghusband building, down some stairs, out the door, along the cobblestone alley, behind a massive, old, hardwood, warehouse sliding door!

Mel is quite an amazing designer, and got us to print easily the most complicated & technical (& terrifying) design we've yet to (or ever hope to) print! But aside from our ongoing & underlying terror that she will come up with something like this again, the finished garments are utterly amazing! :)

The dresses are opaque black prints on silk georgette - see a sneak peak from her Autumn/Winter '10 collection:

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Hope everyone had a lovely, restful, chocolate-filled long weekend! We sure did :)

Highlights had to be the easter egg hunt Luz organised on Thursday morn, for everyone in the whole building. We have a rather large building, so people kept finding eggs all weekend! It was great - even tho we're all (supposedly) adults, everyone was running around like we were 7 years old!! (The awesomest thing was, that even tho they were all yucky milk chocolate, Luz bought me a special dark chocolate bunny so I could trade in all my hunted eggs & still share in the joy! Isn't she the best?? Awwwwh..) It was fun as!

In fact, it was so much fun that Luz & I (thanks to my cousin & husband) had another egg hunt & picnic in the park on Sunday! However the eggs were all again depressingly filled with cow product so they were donated to the studio arvo tea's! (i.e, to our wonderful neighbour Yong who comes in always, always looking for "something sweet" at 3pm.)

Anyhoo! I wanted to share with you a few really ace things that have come to our inbox over the last little while :)

like us!

search this blog

Loading...

hello!

Ink & Spindle is a boutique textile studio located in Kensington, Melbourne. Run by Lara Cameron and Caitlin Klooger, we screen print all our textiles by hand on a 10m table in an ethical and sustainable manner.

We are inspired by all things natural and our city of Melbourne. We love being a part of the local design community and collaborating with other creative & lovely people.

open studio dates

Come watch a printing demonstration, have a cup of tea, a chat and browse our textiles!